THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2025

It was just by a nose nose, but KJ Born to Be Wild and jockey Noe Garcia got the best of FDD Dreams and rider Luis Martinez in the All American Derby trials August 6 at Downs of Albuquerque. Everyone held their mutuel tickets for what seemed like an hour waiting on the stewards to decide between the two racing stars which one was headed to the winner’s circle.

Javier Rodriguez, who owned the eventual loser of that photo finish picture went over to KJ’s owner John Lee and offered a friendly handshake and a hearty congratulations. What a touch of class.

“I told Javier that I wasn’t supposed to outrun him,” John laughed recalling the moment in the winner circle following the trial race. Both horses will meet again in the $1 million All American Derby final for three-year-olds on Monday.
“My horse got loose on the outside that day and caught Dreams just at the wire,” John remembered. “That’s horse racing.”

Javier agrees with his friend John that anything can happen in a horse race, but when the two meet again on Monday the stakes will be much higher. This will be the fourth meeting on the racetrack between the two horses and right now it’s 2-1 Dreams.

“Dreams is doing fantastic,” Javier said this week as his horse went to the track on Tuesday for a breeze. “It was just one of the things to get caught at the wire. We hope it doesn’t happen again, but if it does there’s no one I’d rather lose to than John.”

Following a third-place finish in the All American Futurity last Labor Day plus a win in the Texas Classic Futurity at Lone Star Park and a victory in the Ruidoso Derby, FDD Dreams currently has earnings of $1.3 million. FDD Dreams is listed at 6-1 on the morning line and KJ Born to Be Wild is 4-1.

Neither are favored to win the final. The favorite is House of Lords and jockey Francisco Calderon at 5/2 which has won four straight races including the Heritage Place Derby at Remington Park in the spring. House of Lords ran the fastest qualifying time for all quarter horses that competed in the All American trial races of 20.789 seconds for 440-yards.

“That’s an extremely tough Derby,” Francisco said. “We might be favored but FDD Dreams is the horse to beat. I feel like my horse is capable along with a number of horses in the field. I would say this year’s Derby has quality through-and-through.”

The Derby is the ninth race on the eleven race card on Monday scheduled for 5:45 p.m.